Croup is a breathing difficulty caused by swollen vocal cords. It can be brought on by a virus, by allergies, by bacteria, or even acid reflux. Croup is very distinctive. If your child gets it, you will know immediately, that something is very wrong. Its calling card is that it almost always occurs in the middle of the night and manifests itself as a horrible, barking sound that can make most new parents weak in the knees. You can put a seemingly well child to bed and then be awakened at 2 am by, what sounds like, the Exorcist in your child’s bedroom. The strange thing about croup is that your child can already be sick, without you knowing it, but that midnight hour seems to bring everything to a head. When you hear the barking cough of croup for the first time in your child, you will most likely go into panic mode because the sound is just so scary. It almost sounds like choking or a gasping for air and in a sense, it is. Croup is the constricting of the vocal cords and starts out with a sound similar to a seal barking and then can continue on with very labored breathing and even stridor. It can last for 5-8 nights but the first 1 or 2 are the absolute worst. The barking cough continues throughout the day and the lenghth of the sickness but the night time seems to, for some reason, exacerbate the symptoms. It tends to occur in younger children anywhere from 3 months to around 6 years of age but older children are not immune.
If you’re a new parent and your child wakes up in the middle of the night with this “seal-like” cough and labored breathing, you’re first instinct will probably be to consult your baby book or call your pediatrician or emergency room. If you’ve never experienced croup before this might be a good idea because other disorders and diseases that are more severe can cause labored breathing and can be potentially more dangerous and life threatening than croup. Asthma, for instance, is a condition that would need immediate attention by a trained physician. Croup is actually a secondary symptom of the real culpret of whatever your child is actually battling. RSV,the measles and the flu are just a few of the bacterial infections that can have their own list of symptoms and characteristics and that can trigger croup. When your child wakes up with the coughing, take note of things such as: Is there fever present? Is there any discharge from the nose and if so, what color is it? Is my child vomiting or experiencing diarrhea? It’s always good with very young babies to check for de-hydration as well. A quick way to do this is to check for skin elasticity. Gently pinch the back of your child’s hand. If the skin quickly snaps back then your child is fine but if takes awhile for the skin to retract then chances are your child is becoming dehydrated. Also, a baby shouldn’t go more than 6 hours without a wet diaper. Another way to tell if your child is dehydrated is by simply watching them cry and noticing if tears stop coming out. As I mentioned before, croup is just a secondary symptom of a real sickness that your child is experiencing but is just becoming apparent to you. You need to look at your child and notice what symptoms are already there that you may have missed. Barring any bacterial infections, you should always do a mouth sweep with your finger or a flashlight just to make sure your child hasn’t put a foreign object into their mouth during the night. Give the child a drink of something to make sure liquids can still go down the throat.
Once you’ve determined that your child is, in fact, experiencing croup, what do you do? Well, the good news is, you don’t have to rush to your local ER at 2 in the morning. The throat area is where the barking is localized. The vocal cords are tightened and every time your child coughs it not only aggravates the affected area but also scares your child. Your number one goal, at this point, is to calm your child down. The more they hear the strange sound that comes out of their own mouth, the more terrified they become, which usually triggers more crying and coughing. It can be a vicious cycle if you don’t act fast to calm the child down. The next step is to calm the inflammation. You can do this one of two ways or go back and forth. Believe it or not, taking your child out into the cold night air can really do wonders for croup. Croup usually occurs during the winter and if your take your child from a warm house out into the cold night air, the sudden change in the temperature of the air that your child breathes can help calm the inflammation of those vocal cords. You can also go into the bathroom, shut the door and turn on a hot shower. Sit, rock or pace with your child if you need to while the bathroom fills with hot steam from the running shower. The steam helps calm the inflammation. The first night of croup is usually the worst and you wont need to resort to the above mentioned tactics on the 2nd and 3rd night but running a cool mist vaporizer will definitely help your child sleep better. Some parents run a vaporizer under their baby’s crib and put a sheet over the top of the bed like a tent. You can help ease your child’s symptoms from croup on your own but when daylight comes you may need to think about making a trip to your pediatrician just to rule out the need for antibiotics to help with an unforeseen bacterial infection. If you need more information on croup, please take a look at the websites below.
www.mayoclinic.com/health/croup/DS00312
www.askdrsears.com/html/8/t084200.asp
pediatrics.about.com/cs/commoninfections/a/croup.htm
